Professional says there always will be residual hair -- true for you?

[sg.]

Following are quotes form a youtube video -- <dot-com-slash>watch?v=2W_IqXc9ni0&t=1215 -- training professional barbers for shaving with a straight razor:

At 20:15: I'll get a hair eath time I do it [take finishing strokes] ... it doesn't matter how many times I do it

At 20:26: no matter how many times I do this [take finishing strokes], I'm getting hair off

Note that he is using the Professional Guard blade (the guard attempts to always keep the blade at a distance from the skin).

Question: When you shave yourself with a straight, do you find that you too "no matter how many [finishing strokes you take, you continue] getting hair off?

 

[StillShaving]

I did not watch the video but it is difficult to understand what he means by hair, as it should all be so short nothing worth cutting remains. Certainly on a "flat" part of the face no hair should remain, and if shaved ATG it could be shaved so close as to cause ingrowns if done aggressively. Around the chin one could take many WTG tiny passes to achieve perfection, but the limits of many shaving passes is quickly reached.

 

[RumpleBearskin]

Well ... I don't think I can agree with the professional. I suppose they could be right at a microscopic or technical level.

But practically speaking, I know that I regularly get a BBS result where I cannot feel any stubble. No scritch, no matter where I feel, or in what direction I rub my hand. So as far as I am concerned, and speaking purely from a personal, sensory evaluation - No, there is not always hair left to remove.

 

[xmacro]

I think it's always "possible" to find more hair if you want, but you need to consider why that is. With DE and straight shaves, the goal is to get the whisker cut even with the skin; if you want, you can shave so as to lift the hair slightly out of the pore, cut it, and let it fall back into the skin pore. This is what multi blade razors do - lift and cut - and why people get red bumps, from ingrown hairs that can't find their way back out of the skin pore.
If you want to get that aggressive with a single blade, you might as well switch back to cartridges

 

[iamryan25]

I think if the skin is stretched further than it was on the preceding pass, cutting more hair is possible.

Similarly, I think if someone stretched less than they did on a preceding pass they probably wouldn't cut more hair.

I imagine how much skin is stretched has an influence on how much hair can be exposed for reduction. Perhaps this variable is one the professional hadn't considered?

 

[TexOkie Shaver]

I just know that I reach a point after the third pass and some cleanup that I don’t hear or feel any feedback and I can’t feel stubble.

 

[KrstGor]

Following are quotes form a youtube video -- <dot-com-slash>watch?v=2W_IqXc9ni0&t=1215 -- training professional barbers for shaving with a straight razor:





Note that he is using the Professional Guard blade (the guard attempts to always keep the blade at a distance from the skin).

Question: When you shave yourself with a straight, do you find that you too "no matter how many [finishing strokes you take, you continue] getting hair off?

For starters, here's the proper link to that video:

As for your Q - No, as I don't stop until I can no longer feel ANY stubble left. The key in succeeding to do so (FOR ME) is to pull the skin as tight as possible in the direction opposite to hair growth and then shave ATG.

 

[sg.]

This is what multi blade razors do - lift and cut -

I do not have the newer multi-blades, but have a Mach 3. In the Mach 3, there is a "projecting wall" at both ends, along the width of the blade. This projecting wall ensures that there is a distance between the skin and the edge of the wall (similar to the distance achieved by the guards in Feather's guarded bladed for their DX razor; and similar to the distance acheieved by the guards in the Schick Silk-type of razors). So if a Mach-3 is placed flat and pulled on a horizontal glass, the edges of the blade are above the glass. Pulling the Mach 3 on a loopy baber towel does not result in the loops being pulled out, i.e., "being lifted and cut". I believe that the videos Gillette shows for "lift and cut" are with special razors that do not have the "projecting wall".

Incidentally, if a multi-blade razor was capable of giving a closer (but still safe in the sense of being at or above the skin) shave than a straight, barbers would be using a multi-blade. The "protecting wall" of a multi-blade results in a coarser shave than what is possible with a straight (I suppose even with a Feather Pro-Guard blalde).

So as far as I am concerned, and speaking purely from a personal, sensory evaluation - No, there is not always hair left to remove.

If you want to get that aggressive with a single blade

The type of closeness of shave that that professional's comments raise is not "beneath the skin" closeness; his appears to be claiming and showing that cutting flush to the skin is not possible with a straight. I doubt if that claim is warranted.